Poor but happy?

Even though I’m in a very good mood today, I have decided my new blog will be a rant.  A rant about “poor but happy,”  the phrase I have heard many, many times.  No, I am not working on poverty alleviation as such, but when people talk to me about traveling and working with underprivileged communities, I hear this phrase a lot.  Usually it is a nice, upbeat commentary about traveling in the “third world.” 

“It is so eye-opening!  You see these people that have so little, but they are still so happy!  Their lives are so simple.  It makes me reconsider my busy life with email, iphones, dinner dates and deadlines.  Maybe they have figured out something that we don’t know.”

And I’m here to say:  I have no idea what it is like to be poor, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it does not, in fact, make you happy.  Nor is life simpler.  At all. 

Take, for example, drinking water.  I would say those of us in the developed world have things a bit simpler when it comes to opening the tap, filling a glass, and drinking some water.  If you live in many parts of the world with running water, you still have to boil it to render it potable, which takes a lot of time and energy (yours and the stuff you pay a lot for).  Maybe you don’t have running water or a borehole, and you have to go collect water, which can take a huge chunk out of your productive workday and take a whole lot of effort.  If you have to carry your water, you are probably going to use a lot less of it, meaning you spend a good portion of your life pretty dehydrated.  This would not make me happy. 

Besides the extra difficulties in conducting and everyday life that most poor people deal with, they still have the stressors that we do.  They still worry about work, school, boyfriends, etc.  Maybe their life seems more “pure” to us because they aren’t worried about selecting the wine with the correct terroir, or waiting in line for the new iphone, but they probably spend just as much time and more energy waiting in line at the borehole.